Friendships, profiles tainted by services, intelligence, espionage, connivance. There RussiaCountry under sanction for invading theUkraine as of February 2022, San Marino has an enviable gateway to Italy (and Europe). And this bond, also strengthened with the pandemic when the Serenissima Republic cobbled on the Mount Titano he bought the Russian preparation Sputnik, is also becoming a source of great concern for Western intelligence. In a long fresco published by the British weekly The Economist San Marino ends up under the radar due to its controversial history Emmanuel Goûtwhich has a long association with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. The 65-year-old Frenchman has worked for some of Russia’s major energy groups and helped create the French-language service of the state-controlled Russian television channel, Rt. In 2020, he was granted Russian citizenship by decree issued by the president. Yet, for the past two years, and despite his history of close ties with Putin’s Russia, Goût has been the diplomatic representative of a Western European state, albeit one of the smallest.
His nomination
On 7 February 2022, as Russian soldiers massed at the borders of Ukraine before the invasion 17 days later, the Republic of San Marino appointed him ambassador general. Second Luca Beccari, Foreign Minister of the micro-State, Goût was nominated for his «many years of experience in numerous sectors of interest for the Republic». Yet his appointment was only announced on a government portal reserved for diplomats, but not released publicly.
The tasks conferred
On 18 July 2023, San Marino gave Goût more specific tasks, such as the role of ambassador to Algeria. Beccari, responding in writing to the questions ofEconomist, stated that at the time of the Frenchman’s appointment “no other citizenships were declared, nor did other citizenships emerge from checks carried out internally”. But the decree granting Mr. Goût his Russian citizenship can be viewed on a Russian government website.
Foreign relations and policy
This burgeoning diplomatic career is a manifestation of San Marino’s unusual foreign policy that has provided Russia – and also China – a little-known back door to Western Europe, and Italy in particular. This raises questions about the European Union’s plans for closer ties with the Republic. Last December the EU announced that it had successfully concluded negotiations for an association agreement with San Marino. The deal still needs to be formally approved in Brussels or ratified by the European Parliament.
Ties with Russia
An independent enclave in northern Italy, San Marino has long had close ties with Russia, which it explained by referring to its traditional neutrality. He did not join other Western nations in imposing sanctions after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Instead, five years later, by which time Kremlin-backed separatists had occupied much of eastern Ukraine, then-Foreign Minister of the microState invited his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to pay an official visit. In 2021 it bought the Russian Sputnik vaccine, giving Moscow a propaganda boost, and later that year the two countries signed a deal to lift visa restrictions. In 2022, however, after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the small republic implemented sanctions against Russia, thus abandoning centuries of formal neutrality.
Ambivalent politics
The fact that San Marino may still have an ambivalent policy towards Russia does not surprise intelligence sources in Rome. San Marino has long been a haven for espionage. Russian intelligence services, and to a lesser extent Chinese ones, have used San Marino as a place to meet agents and conduct financial transactions off institutional radar.
The beginnings of 1989 and relations with Fininvest
Goût first covered Russia in 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell. The Fininvest of the former Italian prime minister and television magnate Silvio Berlusconi, entrusted him with the task of intercepting business opportunities in the collapse of the Soviet bloc. French later founded a public relations firm that worked for the state nuclear energy company Rosatom, pressuring other countries to buy Russian nuclear power plants. His consultancy firm Stratinvest It also counts oil giants Rosneft and Gazprom among its clients.
Relations with Zemmour
In 2015, after turning his attention back to France, a French newspaper reported that Goût would introduce future far-right politician Eric Zemmour to the Kremlin. Two years later he played a key role in the creation of RT France. Ukrainian intelligence sources say Goût helped arrange meetings with foreign politicians and journalists for Lavrov and that he served as an advisor in negotiations over arms sales.
The other controversial profiles
Not that he is the only envoy from San Marino to have a history of close ties with Russia. The professor Igor Pellicciari, ambassador of the Republic to Jordan, was appointed in 2019. Yet, from 2014 to 2017, he represented Russia as honorary consul in Bologna. Honorary consuls must reside in the designated territories and, according to Italian diplomatic sources, his credentials were revoked after he informed the authorities that he had moved to Russia. In response to theEconomist Pellicciari states that he “has never received financial compensation of any kind, not even in the form of reimbursement of expenses” for his activity as honorary consul.
What is San Marino
San Marino, landlocked, has a population of less than 34,000 inhabitants and occupies an area of just 60 square kilometres. This makes it one of the smallest countries in the world. Yet until February 29 of this year his honorary consul in Moscow was among the most powerful men in Russia. Vladimir Lisin had held the position since 2002. Lisin, a steel magnate, is Russia’s third richest citizen, second Forbes. He has publicly criticized the invasion of Ukraine, but is subject to sanctions from Australia, which put him on its list in 2022 for “having carried out an activity or performed a function of economic or strategic importance to Russia” . San Marino removed Mr. Lisin from its consular corps only after he submitted his resignation. Mr Lisin’s office told the Economist that this was “due to his inability to be present in regions of consular activity on a regular basis”. Beccari states that San Marino did not act earlier “since Mr Lisin’s name does not appear in the European Union sanctions, to which San Marino adheres”.
The special tax treatment
San Marino has been independent since 1291. It was not united with the rest of Italy in the 19th century, according to some versions, for having given refuge to Giuseppe Garibaldi and his wife during the fight for Italian unification. Once a tax haven, San Marino’s economy has suffered in recent years due to tighter control from offshore financial centers. However, its citizens are among the richest in the world.
The vision of the EU
Peter Stano, spokesperson for the European Commission for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said: «San Marino is a partner that shares the same principles as the EU and regularly supports the EU’s foreign policy positions in international organisations». You noted that San Marino voted in favor of the United Nations General Assembly motion calling for Russia to withdraw from Ukraine. But a senior official ofintelligence Ukraine said that while San Marino’s continued ties with Russia are “no surprise,” the apparent lack of attention paid to San Marino’s foreign policy by its European neighbors is “cause for concern.”
The unknown Skyline Aviation
This story goes hand in hand with that of the patriarch Kirillwho together with the wife of the former prime minister Medvedevto the presenter of state TV Nailya Asker-Zade and other top-level Russian executives traveled on luxury private jets departing from the hangars of a small and seemingly insignificant company in San Marino. The unknown Skyline Aviation, based in via Consiglio dei Senta 99 (10 minutes from the Rocca, 20 from Rimini), with its 40 million Gulfstream G450 and its 3 Bombardiers surprisingly ended up in the sights of the US Treasury Department in 2022 which gives the hunt for the assets of the oligarchs closest to the Kremlin.
